The night of Finals
by Demigod Tribute from Hogwarts
Summary: I know it's been done before, but here's my idea of what happened after finals. Please read, review, and ignore my horrible summaries!
1. Finals night

They did it; they performed her music at the ICCAs. Not only that, but they fucking killed it, and the competition. She knew they'd won, and everyone else had too, so finally, _finally _getting Jesse was like getting drunk right again right before the hangover kicks in-never any low point, just high.

She can't pull away, hard as she's trying. She pulls away, smiles, then dives back in, and his hands are tight at her waist and she can barely hear the Bellas and Trebles alike catcalling them and Amy's snide comment about how she's getting their hotel room to herself tonight who should she bring home-and she's right, because, let's face it, Beca's not going there, or anywhere, without Jesse. She barely hears Aubrey letting loose and saying to Chloe, "I guess he's okay," but she does hear the announcer saying the next act – that everyone feels bad for, because who'd want to perform after that? – is about to come on. She's not willing to pull away though, so she says against Jesse's lips, "Help me other these, would you?" He seems to understand, because suddenly she's off the ground and being pulled over the theater seats and she pulls up her legs to avoid smashing her shins and then she's in his lap, where she reluctantly faces forward to watch the whatever-the-hell-they're-called perform.

Halfway through their set, however, she realizes how god-awful they sound, and she can't focus on them anyway because Jesse's been sucking at shoulders and neck for the entirety of the performance, so she finally spins around on his lap and resumes their face sucking, ignoring Stacie behind her saying, "You go, girl!"

They finally fully stop when it's announced the Bellas won, and she reluctantly climbs off his lap and runs up with her fellow Bellas to accept the trophy. They hug and hold it up high on stage, and Beca's beyond happy now-she doesn't remember the last time she felt this great- but when Aubrey asks them if they were all going to go back to their hotel to celebrate, Beca shook her head and said, "You guys go ahead, I have other things to celebrate," causing Stacie, Fat Amy and Cynthia Rose to laugh and whoop. Beca smiles, says, "I love you awesome nerds," again, hugs them all, and then rushes down the stairs, almost running into Jesse.

"Hey," he barely has time to say, before she's attacking him again, kissing him with the ferociousness that could only come from over 7 months of waiting and sexual tension.

Oh yeah, she was definitely going to his hotel room. She was just hoping he had a room to himself.

Her toes are barely touching the ground, thanks to Jesse, who's picked her up by the waist to avoid having to lean down the whole time-he really was a lot taller than her. She's considering putting her legs around his waist, to hell with the crowd, when she hears her dad come up behind them and say, "Beca."

She breaks away from Jesse, (mostly for air), ignoring her dad for a moment as she says softly to Jesse, forehead leaning on his, "I think you should put me down now."

He chuckles. "Probably."

They most likely would've stayed like that for longer, but Professor Mitchell clears his throat loudly behind them, and Jesse reluctantly sets Beca down, who spins to face her dad. "Hi."

He smiles at her, though it looks slightly forced. His eyes flick to Jesse, who nods respectively, acting like he wasn't just making out with his daughter and beyond loving it. "Sir."

"Jesse." He looks at Beca. "I thought he was a friend."

Beca shrugs, unconsciously leaning against Jesse. "He was. Until about 15 minutes ago. When I serenaded him with Simple Minds." She smiles up at Jesse, who smiles back and kisses her hair, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Ah." Her dad clears his throat again. "I'm guessing it's from a movie?" The only time's he's met Jesse was when he'd walked in on movications, so he knows how much Jesse loved movies.

Jesse nods, laughing. "The Breakfast Club." He looks down at Beca. "You totally watched it. Did you cry?"

She flushes. "Shut up, nerd." He laughs again, knowing he's right and prepares to leave the conversation, knowing they needed their space. He'd gotten good at that with Beca, for the most part. "Well, I'll see you back at Barden tomorrow afternoon. Sheila and I are heading back tonight, so she's getting the car. Congrats." He waves and walks away. Beca waves back for a second, then turns back to Jesse. "I'm really hoping you have your own hotel room."

"I do, actually. Not honestly sure how that happened, especially now that Benji's a part of the Trebles, but I'm very glad it did."

"Good," she says. "Because, you know, give me everything tonight." She sings the last part, making him laugh again and swing his arm around her shoulders. It made her skin tingle in the best way, not that she'd ever admit that.

After saying goodbye to the Bellas for the night-she passes them on the way out and is practically suffocated by hugs, she gets on the Treble bus with Jesse, but, per request (particularly by Benji, though he was happy his roommate'd finally gotten the girl he'd been chasing for the past 7 months), has no heated make-out sessions with said Treble. She does insist on sitting on his lap, though, and talks to him and Benji, who was sitting next to them, most of the drive

Jesse isn't sure how or when it'd happened, but it becomes clear to him as the ride back to the hotel continues like Beca and Benji had a nice friendship going, even though he's appalled by the fact she's never seen Star Wars. (She decides not to mention she knows about Darth Vader being Luke's father, fearful he'll hurt himself.)

"How though?!" He looks at Jesse. "How has she not seen it? Why haven't you showed it to her?"

Jesse looks at Beca. "You realize we're going to have to add it to your movications now."

She shrugs. "Okay. We also need to cross off a lot. And by a lot I mean a lot."

Jesse raises an eyebrow. "You watched movies? Willingly?"

She slaps his arm lightly, but smiles. "Shut it, nerd. But yeah, I did."

He grins at her, and asks, "How many is a lot?"

She opens her mouth to reply when the bus pulls to a stop and Donald announces from the front, "We're here." Beca says a quick goodbye to Benji and the rest of the Trebles – most of which are heading to the Bella's hotel to party with them, whether or not they were allowed - before getting up from Jesse's lap and marching off the bus and into the hotel, dragging Jesse by the hand, all the way into the elevator. He takes the lead from there, pressing the button for the 3rd floor and, when the door's open, leading her down the hallway to the door to his room, where he fiddles with his room key until he manages to open the door, and they stumble in, and Beca barely has enough time to kick the door shut behind her before Jesse's there and picking her up and she wraps her legs around him and let him carry her to the bed as she clumsily undoes his tie and the buttons on his shirt. He lays her down on the bed, and climbs on top of her.

And I think we all know where this is going.

_**And the first chapter is up! I should have the second, if not third up later tonight, if not then most definitely tomorrow. (I'm sorry if the tenses are messed up, I started with present tense then somehow ended up in past tense .I think I managed to get them all, but if I didn't, sorry! It is midnight, after all. ) Hope you enjoy, and please review! **_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing, obviously. This is fanfiction, after all.**_


	2. The morning after

_**So, second chapter, here we go! This is now officially in present tense, because it refuses to be anything else. Hope you enjoy!**_

When Beca wakes up, she's disorientated for a second, and then the memories of last night come back.

Winning the ICCAs, kissing Jesse, going back to the hotel with the Trebles, Star Wars talks with Benji, and then really great sex.

She hadn't been expecting that. Well, the sex, yeah (she did tell him to give her everything, after all), but great sex. Like, really great. Based on his goofiness and general sweetness, that was not anticipated in the slightest.

She untangles herself from him and walks quickly to the bathroom so she can shower, more for the heat than anything, because Jesus Christ, it's cold in the hotel room. Although granted, being naked probably doesn't help. Before going in, she glances at the clock next to Jesse's head. 8:30. _Ew._

When she gets out of the shower, wrapped in a towel and significantly warmer, she hears someone knocking at the door.

"Shit," she mutters, because she's only wearing a towel, Jesse's still sleeping, and her clothes had been thrown in various directions around the room. Seeing Jesse's shirt was right next to her feet, she figures it would have to do, and slides it on, letting her damp towel fall off onto the ground as she quickly does up the buttons. She's never been so glad she was short, since the shirt falls halfway down her thighs.

Opening the door, she sees Benji standing there, now turning slightly red and awkward as his eyes fall upon-or, try not to-her lack of clothing.

"Hi, Benji," she says, pulling on the hem of Jesse's shirt. "Jesse's asleep."

"Oh," he says, eyes flicking around, looking at everything but her. "OK, we were just going to have breakfast in the restaurant before we headed back to the airport. Do you guys wanna come or..?" He drifts off, not wanting to complete the sentence.

"Um, yeah," Beca says, "I'll wake him up, and we'll be down in, say, 10? We'll meet you down there."

"Cool." Benji quickly turns away, relief radiating off of him in waves to not have to look at Beca any longer. Beca feels similar, his awkwardness having rubbed off onto her. She closes the door and turns around to see Jesse awake, and looking around for her.

He sighs in relief when he spots her coming back to the bed. "What?" she asks.

He smiles sheepishly. "I was beginning to think that whole thing was a dream."

She smiles at him. "That would have been a very vivid dream, then. That was Benji at the door. Told us to meet the Trebles for breakfast downstairs before heading back to the airport. I said we'd be down in 10. That OK?" He nods, and gets out of bed to rifle through his suitcase.

Beca, in the meantime, wanders around the room, gathering their discarded clothing items. She finally finds her own shirt, wrinkled on the ground.

She looks over at Jesse, still digging in his suitcase. "Mind if I borrow a shirt?" He nods and tosses her his grey Treblemaker's shirt. She scoffs as she slides off his button-down, and puts on her bra and his shirt. "In case it isn't obvious enough I've been Trebleboned."

He snorts, straightening up, pulling a t-shirt over his head as he asks her, "Trebleboned?"

To her credit, she merely smiles before saying, "It's strictly forbidden, having sex with a Treble. I think I've got a free pass though, considering I just won the Bellas the ICCAs."

They finish getting changed quickly, still not used to being seen naked by the other, and Jesse lets Beca pack her own shirt in his bag. They leave the room together, and walk back down to the elevator holding hands. Beca, not usually one for PDA, finds she doesn't mind this one case.

She untangles their fingers to use her Bellas scarf to tie a part of his shirt off so it wasn't quite as loose on her, causing Jesse to laugh. It's a nice sound, one she enjoys.

When they get to the restaurant, they find the Trebles already seated at the biggest table of the restaurant, two empty seats next to each other waiting for them.

They sit, and throughout the whole meal are teased endlessly with ridiculously dirty comments and snide remarks about their newfound relationship. Frankly, Beca doesn't give two shits. She's actually, full on happy for once, and she'll be damned if some stupid immature singers take it away from her. When they finally cease their teasing to eat, it starts up again, to her alone this time, because she's eating as much as the rest of them. Even Jesse's surprised, but he only finds it more endearing.

"Jesus, Beca, you eat a lot," Austin laughs from his place at her other side, and Beca picks up a piece of bacon thoughtfully and says, "Sorry, I guess kicking your asses really took it out of me."

"That and sex," Donald comes back with without skipping a beat.

She shoves the bacon into her mouth and nods. "Yeah. Sex too. But mostly ass-kicking."

Jesse snorts at her forwardness. He probably should be embarrassed, but she had come home with him. It had been kind of obvious. Benji looks uncomfortable enough for the both of them, anyway.

Leaning over, she grabs his wrist so she can check his watch, quickly realizing she has to head the Bellas' hotel.

Knowing the meal's paid for by Barden s a plus, because she barely has enough money if her pocket to pay for the cab she's planning on taking.

She kisses Jesse quickly, and says, "I need to be getting back to my hotel. See you dorks at the airport."

One more kiss, and she's gone. She hears Jesse tell the Trebles, "It's a compliment." She snorts out a laugh, and walks out of the hotel, getting into a taxi that was right outside. She gives the driver the name of the hotel, and he drives off.

When she gets there, she gives him the money from her pocket and tells him to keep the change as she gets out and practically runs up to the room she's sharing with Amy.

She knocks quickly-she has her key, but she doesn't want to walk in on Amy having sex with some pool boy or something. Thankfully she opens the door with clothes on, alone, grinning when she sees Beca.

"Finished your Trebleboning, huh?"

Beca chooses to ignore her-she's good at that-, going into the room, quickly packing up her stuff and changing her jeans. She would never admit, but she liked wearing Jesse's shirt-even if it was a Treblemaker shirt and Amy's saying something about it she really doesn't want to listen to it for the sole dirtiness of it.

Shortly after Beca gets back, Denise is at the door, informing them they're leaving in 5 minutes and Beca better be back by now.

"I am! Thanks!" She calls in reply, and heard Denise move on.

She and Amy zip up their bags, put on their jackets, and walk down to the lobby together.

Everyone else is already down there, and she gets quite a few grins in reference to her previous night and the shirt she's currently wearing. Aubrey full on turns around, throws her hands up, and says, "I saw nothing. Nothing at all," when she sees Beca in Jesse's Treble shirt.

Beca laughs at that as they load the bus.

On the way to the airport, she's seriously hoping Jesse's getting treated the same way she is-squeezed for any and all information on their night together.

"I'm not telling you guys anything," she deadpans for the umpteenth time. She isn't even listening to what they're saying anymore, just repeating herself over and over again whenever a question's directed at her.

"Oh come on!" Chloe whines, desperate.

"Nothing," Beca repeats. She's extremely glad when Amy stops the bus and says, "We're here flat butts.

Beca's the first off the bus, rushing to get away from the Bellas and wanting to find Jesse.

She does, quite quickly, because he's waiting for her by the entrance. He smiles when he sees her. He kisses her quickly as a hello and snakes his arm around her waist as they walk inside together.

"Please tell me they bugged you to no ends about last night," she practically growls at him, but she smirks when he nods.

"Told them nothing, though, so don't worry. Your ego is saved."

She scoffs. "It didn't need saving. I'm awesome."

He laughs. "Mostly. Who are you sitting next to on the plane?"

It takes her a second to answer, partially because it's a left turn in logic and partially because she can't remember.

"Lilly," she says finally. "You?"

"Donald. Want to see if they want to switch?"

They do, as it turns out, both seeming quite happy. Maybe more happened between them on the bus ride to semifinals then they were letting on.

Beca shrugs it off, because it's none of her damn business anyway.

They get on the plane back to Barden, and Beca, who is not a morning person in the slightest, ends up falling asleep on Jesse's shoulder. Not that he minds though.

_**Tada! Second chapter! Yeah, there's going to be some LillyxDonald in here too. I couldn't resist! This will continue into the rest of the school year, because if my math is right, it's only about April when Finals come. So, look forward to that. Please review!**_

_**I still own nothing.**_


	3. Back at Barden

When the plane hits the runway, Jesse wakes Beca up, and they get off with the Bellas and Trebles-Lilly's happily tucked under Donald's arm now, and it doesn't go unnoticed by any of them. She even joins Beca on the Trebles bus, sitting behind the driver's seat, where Donald is. They beat box quietly together, ignoring everyone else around them, who are all staring at them, save Jesse and Beca.

They're in their own little world.

They get back to campus at the same time the Bellas do, and the girls agree to meet up tomorrow to plan a celebratory party with the whole aca community before Beca walks off with Jesse to his dorm to continue movications, and Lilly and Donald walk off to do god knows what.

Beca's just hoping it doesn't involve any dead bodies or fires.

Benji joins them for movication, mostly because it's Star Wars, and Jesse has apparently decided they're watching every movie.

Beca finds herself enjoying them despite herself, although she thinks Benji's reaction to the fact she knows about Darth Vader being Luke's father is the best part of the whole thing.

"She knows German," Jesse informs him, and Beca snorts from her position resting with her head on his chest.

Benji looks confused, so she adds, "Vader means father in German. Once you know that much, it's not hard to figure out."

Benji huffs and turns back to the screen.

They spend the whole day holed up in that room, and the majority of the night, and Beca's been falling asleep for the past hour by the time they finally finish.

When Jesse tries to get her to move, her response is to shove him off the bed and climb under the covers. Her jeans join him on the floor a second later, and he looks up to find her in, he supposes, just his t-shirt now, tucked into the bed and curling up next to the wall.

He turns to Benji. "Apparently she's staying here tonight. That OK?"

Benji shrugs. "Just don't…do anything." Jesse chuckles and changes for bed before climbing in next to Beca, who immediately turns, migrating to his warm chest.

He chuckles as he rests his head on his pillow, and drifts off to sleep.

The Bellas celebration party is 2 days after that, and every group, save the High Notes, is there. Jesse and Beca spend the entirety of it together, laughing guiltily at Benji's attempts to flirt, and then getting completely overwhelmed when Stacie starts seeming interested.

"Ew," Beca suddenly says, and Jesse turns to her.

"What?"

"Mental image of those two. Ew," she shudders, and he laughs, and then his expression turns disgruntled as he, pictures the horrifying image.

"Yeah, I see what you mean."

Jesse drags Beca into the crowd to dance at one point, and goes over dramatic when he sees her smiling.

"Aha! That was a smile! A smile, ladies and gentlemen!"

She drags him up the concrete stairs after that, hand firmly clamped over his mouth.

She whips it away from him when he licks it, but his victory his short lived, because she just wipes it on his jeans.

When he makes a noise of protest, she points out, "It's your own spit," and he huffs.

"You know," she says, voice perfectly even, "we could just go back to your room. Benji looks like he's going to be here for a while."

Jesse turns to see his roommate, no longer being close to sexually harassed by Stacie, but talking animatedly with Jessica. They're close enough to the two that Jesse can tell they're talking about Star Wars, and Benji looks like he's in second heaven. Jessica does too, actually.

"Does she always smile like that?" Jesse asks Beca, who snorts and replies, "The better question is, when does she _not _smile like that. So, are we heading back to your room or what?"

He shrugs. "Don't you want to stay? This is to celebrate your win, after all."

She takes another sip from her cup before saying, "I figure sex is a better way to celebrate."

He snorts and tries to regain his composure before saying in reply, "Touché."

_**So, I wasn't sure how to end this, but meh. I'm sorry this is so short, but I seem to be focusing more on my other story…I will try to work more on this one, though. I do have school starting up again on Monday, but I ignore my homework anyways, so, yeah. Hope you enjoyed this and please review!**_


	4. surprises

They have a little over a month before school ends, and they spend it doing whatever the hell they want to do.

The first time they walk into the radio station as a couple, hand in hand, Luke takes one look at them from the second floor before calling down to them, "The 'no sex on the desk' rule is now reinforced."

He disappears into the booth a few seconds later, and, whenever he comes out, seems extra snarky to Jesse.

Jesse, however, shakes it off and acts like it's nothing, finally happy to have gotten his girl and not have her gone to him.

"He's jealous of you," Beca remarks, looking slightly surprised, and then she smirks. "Maybe if he'd been nicer to me when he took me out that one time…" she shakes her head and walks off, seemingly disappointed in Luke's actions.

She enjoys the sound Jesse makes when she mentions her date with Luke, though.

"When did you go out with Luke?" He asks, placing a CD on a shelf with more force than needed.

She tries not to laugh at him, and says nonchalantly, "After semi-finals, when I hated everyone."

Jesse huffs, but smiles after a second. "Wait I'm confused. You don't hate everyone still?"

He somehow manages to catch the CD she throws at him, and returns her smirk with a playful smile.

They stack CDs like they always do, except now Jesse's being more playful, and romantic, and she's finding somehow she doesn't mind, even if she's never been one for lovey-dovey shit, as she likes to call it.

At quarter to one, Jesse gets sent out for lunch by Luke, who's obviously hoping to get some alone time in the studio with Beca, or just trying to piss Jesse off, and she surprises both of them by walking off after Jesse.

They spend half of what remains of their shift at the diner just off campus, and return an hour late to leave a – by now, probably cold, - bag of take-out on the desk they're forbidden to have sex on before they leave again, Jesse to class and Beca to probably mix music.

She ends up running into Benji though, and spends the whole of Jesse's two hour class with him, walking around campus.

"You did great at Finals," she tells him, smiling when he grins.

"Thanks," he says, pride obvious in his voice, "you guys rocked."

She takes a sip of the coffee she bought from the overpriced café on campus and smiles further when she sees Jesse coming towards them. "Thanks. Sup weirdo?" She calls the last part to Jesse, figuring he's in earshot by now.

"Hey," he calls in reply, stopping until they pass him so he can walk in step with them, arm going around Beca's shoulders automatically. "Hey Benji." The slight surprise in his voice from seeing his girlfriend and roommate/best friend hanging out together is obvious, and Beca snorts at it.

"Please, by the amount of times you've dragged me over to your dorm this year for movications, and then left me in the room with him while you made popcorn, you didn't think he'd turn out as my friend?"

Benji grins, and Jesse smiles sheepishly, shrugging. "I knew that, I just didn't expect you two to be like, hanging out."

"For the last two hours," Benji pipes in, and Jesse's eyebrows raise.

"He's much easier to talk to now that I've actually seen Star Wars," she tells Jesse, making him chuckle and Benji to duck his head.

"Well, as fun as this is," she smiles at Benji, who smiles back, "I really need to do some mixing today. I find it's the only way I stop myself from strangling my teachers. Since I actually went to a class this morning."

She makes Jesse laugh again, and nods when he asks, "Can I come with? I have homework I need to do anyways."

"As long as you're quiet." She waves goodbye over her shoulder to Benji as she walks away towards Baker Hall, not bothering to wait for Jesse, who has to run to catch up with her fast walk.

She mixes music at her desk as he does his homework, spread out on her bed like a cat. The room is silent, her listening to what she makes through her headphones and him focusing intently on the questions in front of him.

He looks up when he hears her start to play her keyboard though.

Her headphones are around her neck as she sits there, playing god-knows-what beautifully. She stops after what sounds like a few bars, and goes to put her headphones back on her ears when Jesse asks, "What the hell was that?"

She turns to look at him, and says slowly, like he's stupid, "That was a keyboard." She completes making him look like an idiot when she mimics playing it in the air with wide eyes. He pretends she isn't acting like he's stupid, and says,

"So can you actually play piano?"

She tucks her hair behind her ear nervously. "Well, yeah, I mean, it's a needed instrument for making music-oh, okay, um, what?"

He's pulling her out of her doorway and out of the building by the hand, refusing to stop. He's stronger than he looks, too, apparently, because she can't get her hand out of his grip, and he just keeps on tugging her along if – when - she tries to stop.

"Dude, what the hell? I'm totally going to take out my rape whistle soon," she states, looking around to try to figure out where they're going. "Wait, isn't this the way to the Treble house?"

He turns his head to look at her, smiling sheepishly. "There's a practice piano there."

She groans as the house comes in sight. "I hate playing for people."

The Treble house is somehow empty, which she's thankful for so she doesn't have to play for more people than necessary. He drags her down the hall, finally stopping in front of an open doorway that shows a small room that barely has enough space for the grand piano inside.

She sits uncertainly at the bench and tucks her hair behind her ear again. "So, um, what do you want me to play?"

"You're not going to try to get out of this?"

She shrugs. "I find it's easier to give in. You know, pick your battles."

He chuckles and sits next to her. "I don't really care what you play."

She cracks her knuckles – and takes pleasure in his wince – and rests her fingers on the keys, and then starts to play.

He recognizes Hedley's _Perfect_, but mostly he's focusing on her fingers fly across the keys, never once faltering, and her face, perfectly at ease as she loses herself in her playing.

She starts singing softly at the chorus, continuing as she went through the rest of the song. Both of them fail to notice the majority of the Trebles standing in the doorway until Beca finishes and one of them – probably Benji - starts clapping. She whips around, then flushes and whips back to face the piano, letting her hair fall in front her face to hide her blush.

"Sorry," Donald apologizes, "we just don't hear the piano used very often. It was kind of a surprise to come in and hear it being played, and you singing."

"You have a bigger range than you give yourself credit for," Benji chirps in, and Jesse smiles at his girlfriend as he wraps an arm around her waist.

"Thanks," she mumbles, then clears her throat and turns to Jesse. "You took me away from mixing. Damn you. See you back in my dorm." she starts to get up, but stops when he grabs her wrist, still smiling.

"What makes you think I'll be going back to your dorm?"

She smirks as she gets her hand free and pushes past the Trebles to head back to her dorm, calling over her shoulder, "Your homework's still on my bed, dork!"

One of the junior Trebles, Brendan, chuckles as he turns back to Jesse. "Do you think we could ever get her to sing with us?"

_**Oh god, I'm so sorry this took so long! For those of you reading my other story, I'm working on the chapter 7, but I'm back at school now, so updates will be less frequent. Hope you enjoyed and please review! And thanks for already doing that!**_


	5. Practicing with Trebles

_**So, this chapter is kind of a prequel, I guess, to one of my other stories, Moves Like Jagger. I wanted to do more with it, and it fits in with this story, so voila! You should be able to read this and not MLJ, but I'm not sure. Anyways, hope you enjoy!**_

It was only the day after when Jesse's at her door again. She doesn't even get the chance to greet him before he asks,

"Are you guys going to perform at the fundraiser next month?"

She's only flustered for a moment, and then she shakes her head and gestures to her throat. "Chloe's throat has been bugging her, so no, we're not. Why?"

He rocks back on his heels, hands in pockets, before he asks nervously, "The Trebles sent me over to ask if you want to perform with us."

She blinks at him, then raises an eyebrow. "Really?"

He nods. "Yeah. We're going to be doing _Moves like Jagger _by Maroon 5, and Benji and I suggested you for Christina Aguilera's part."

She makes a face. "Do you really think I could pull that off?"

He nods enthusiastically. "I know you totally can. Please? Oh, but you can't tell anyone. Not even the Bellas."

She narrows her eyes at him. "So, you're asking me to not only help the rival group of the Bellas, but to not tell them anything about this?"

"Yes?" He's definitely nervous now.

She sighs and gives in. "Fine. When do you want me?"

"Now?"

Another sigh, and a glower to go with. "You're really lucky I was only doing homework."

She lets him lead her to the Treble house, all the way on the other side of campus. When they're nearing the house, she asks,

"When is the fundraiser, anyways?"

"In 2 weeks," he answers, and hears her grumble quietly in reply,

"You're really lucky I already know the song."

When he pushes open the door, they find the majority of the Trebles doing some kind of weird vocal exercise that makes Beca choke with the effort not to laugh at.

"Please tell me you've never done those," she deadpans, and almost facepalms when he smiles sheepishly at her in return.

"They really do help," he tries to defend his team – and pride -, but she just shakes her head.

"As long as you don't make me do them, you can do whatever the hell you want. Aubrey's made me do enough crazy-ass vocal exercises for a lifetime."

He chuckles and leads her farther into the house so he can close the door.

"Okay, so now that our female is here, we can begin," Jesse says loudly, ignoring Beca's glower when he calls her 'female'.

Beca sits off to the side and watches as the boys start working on choreography and the beat. Jesse takes the lead, partly because he'll be singing with Beca and partly because his voice is like ear porn, as Beca likes to put it.

They skip over her part in the song for now, at Jesse's insistence, because he knows the look on her face well enough to know that she's thinking, hopefully about her own singing and dancing.

The third time they run through it, she jumps in unexpectedly, harmonizing at the right parts, and then throwing herself into the bridge. It causes Jesse to stumble a bit, caught unexpectedly, and it allows Beca to lead him across the floor.

He manages to get back into his part at the right time, and he takes over Beca's part as the lead dancer. This starts a heated dance that's almost closer to a battle than choreography, forgetting the Trebles completely. When the song finishes, they're both breathing hard in each other's faces, the entire length of Beca's petite frame pressed against Jesse's, her standing on her toes, their noses almost touching.

He grins at her, almost going cross-eyed looking at her. "Hello there."

She raises an eyebrow, but smiles. "Hello yourself."

Donald clears his throat, reminding them they aren't alone in the room. She pushes away from Jesse, ducking her head to hide the slight blush that's currently spreading across her cheeks.

Benji's the first to speak in the otherwise silent room.

"Can you guys do that again?"

They spend the next two weeks practicing, and Beca manages –barely – to hide it from the Bellas. She tells them she's hanging out with Jesse, and they believe her, if not adding some very rude comments about all the time they've been spending together. It's also a little tricky, because Lilly's with Donald now, and telling her he has Trebles practice at the same time Beca's supposed to be with Jesse is a little odd, but they manage to get through without anyone finding out.

The night of the fundraiser, Beca begrudgingly put on a tight red dress that shows off any and every curve on her body. Chloe had insisted she dress up, whether or not they were performing, and Beca had agreed, and had found herself in this. Although it did go with her part of the performance, she supposed. She didn't have any time to change her mind – and clothes – before Jesse was at the door. When she opens it, he stares at her, his eyes sweeping up and down her body repeatedly until he mumbles, eyes wide, "Wow."

She smirks. "Let's just get this over with?"

They go down the hallway together, and he asks, "Are you sure you can dance in those heels?"

They're not quite as tall as the shoes she wore with her original Bella costume, but they're pretty damn close.

"I'll be fine. I've danced in higher."

"I don't know if walking around a stage doing awkward movements really counts as dancing, but-Ow!"

She figures he deserved the punch to the shoulder she'd just given him.

_**So, please read Moves Like Jagger if you haven't already, and please review for this chapter! I have a 3 day weekend right now, so the next chapter of this, along with Unexpectedly Expecting, should be up soon.**_

_**Thanks!**_


	6. Summer Vacation

What's left of the semester passes quickly without much excitement. With the end of the school year comes final exams, and Beca vowing to take as little academics as possible next year during a study date with Jesse.

They both manage to get fairly good grades, his better than hers—unsurprisingly, because, unlike her, he actually tried the majority of the year—, and then before they know it they're sitting in what's become their spot for the last time of their freshman year. Neither of them have their laptops, for once, so they're just lying there, with Beca's head on Jesse's chest and his fingers twirling her hair.

"Are you gonna miss me?" He asks, and she smiles against him.

"Maybe."

He smiles too. "Maybe?"

"It's a definite possibility," she admits, then adds, "Are you gonna miss me?"

"Most likely. I probably wouldn't if you came to visit…" he trails off, letting her think about what he just offered up. A chance to see him during the summer. A chance to meet his family.

"We'll see," she says finally in reply, and feels him relax beneath her.

She takes a taxi to the airport the next day, and just catches him getting into the same blue car she first saw him in their first day there. He catches her eye, and waves as her taxi drives away.

The first week back home with her mom, she begins to miss him. Phone calls and Skyping aren't the same as actually seeing him in person, and she feels that wholeheartedly. By the first week of August, the pain in her chest that comes from missing him becomes unbearable, and she sets up a visit with him that lets her leave that same week.

The flight is horrible, because she's never liked flying, and she had one of the worst seats due to booking so late, but as soon as she sees him waiting for her, it's all she can do not to run over to him and hug him so hard he falls over. As it is, her walk is quick and when she's standing in front of him, she throws her arms around his neck and pulls him down by it so she can kiss him.

"Knew you'd miss me," he says softly against her lips, and feels her aggravated sigh.

"I did say it was a definite possibility."

He drives her back to his house, where his family is waiting. His little sister, Christina, is 12, and thinks Beca's amazing. Beca seems to like her as well, and Jesse's glad. His parents seem to adore him, and it's cemented when his mother, Susan, states that Beca'll be staying in the guest room, and adds quickly, "Don't worry. Next time you can stay with Jesse in his room," and they're both happy that she's liked enough for there to be a next time.

When his high school friends get word his girlfriend is in town, they insist they get to meet her, which ends Beca up at a table for 7, with only one other girl, Lea, who she's sitting to the left of. Jesse's on her right, with Chris, Mark and Drew on the other side of the table, and Harrison at the head of the table. They're very loud people, she quickly realizes, Lea included. Drew seems to be the calmest of the group, and even he's loud. They all quiet down when their food arrives, though.

"We're glad you guys made up," Lea says at one point. "Jesse seemed pretty beat up when he came home for spring break."

Beca tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled at her boyfriend. "I'm glad too. I wasn't exactly the nicest person back then."

"You still aren't," Jesse says, popping a fry in his mouth quickly before Beca punches him in the shoulder. "See? Punching an innocent guy in the shoulder does not scream nice."

"Yeah, because you're so innocent," Chris says, and Jesse smiles sheepishly at his friend.

Beca can only stay with him for a week before her mother wants her back – it surprised her too -, and they spend every waking moment together.

He drags her to his favourite cinema a total of 5 times in 7 days—twice to see one movie, she'd like to point out—and by the end of the week he's buying separate bags of popcorn for them because of how little salt she puts on hers.

("It's tastes so much better with salt, Bec!" He begged the first time, even knowing he'd never once one against his girlfriend with something like this.

"It tastes saltier," she replied, not even looking at him as she slid the bag off the counter, away from his hands, hands that were feebly clutching 3 packets of salt. And if she swings her hips more than usual going into the theater, well, who is it harming, really?)

She ends up sleeping with him in his bedroom a total of 3 nights, all in a row, because once she remembers how it feels to have her legs tangled with his and his chest pillowing her head with one of his well-muscled arms draping over her torso, she can't seem to get used to an empty bed.

(The only reason she'd crawled into bed with him on the fourth night in the first place was because there was a _huge fucking spider_ on the wall opposite her, and, she calmly explained to his parents the next morning when Jesse's mom had come to see if he was up yet, and had found two occupants of his bed instead of one, she did not want to wake the whole house up at 2A.M banging on the wall repeatedly with a shoe. She couples the explanation with an apology and a promise that "the only action this bed saw last night was someone repeatedly kicking his girlfriend in the thigh", and Jesse's parents don't seem too mad. Christina, of course, finds it hilarious, much to Beca's own amusement.

And if his parents and sister notice creaking in the hallway when everyone's supposed to be in bed and an empty guest bedroom the next two nights, none of them say anything.)

When it rolls around to when she has to leave him again, they're mere weeks away from the start of school again, something they're both—although Beca won't admit this—thankful for.

Beca gets hugged by each of his family members—all of which she, mostly unsurprisingly, hugs back—at his house, and Jesse alone drives her to the airport. She's never been more glad his car has a bench seat than right now, when she's pressed up against his side as he drives.

He carries all but her laptop bag inside the airport, and they manage to be holding hands or touching shoulders up until the moment she has to leave to board her flight.

She gives him a watery smile, and he holds up two fingers. "2 weeks," he says softly. "Then I'm all yours again."

She nods, and he presses her tight against him in what could easily be the world's tightest hug. She's hugging him just as fiercely though, gripping onto the back of his jacket, and Jesus, when did she become such a_ girl?_

They pull away from each other at the same time, only to meld back together at the lips, kissing passionately in the middle of an airport, like a true couple, until they're forced apart by need of oxygen of thinning time.

Jesse leans down to press his forehead against Beca's, and says goodbye against her lips. She has to physically force herself to untangle herself from him and walk away, and if her eyes tear up slightly when she turns back to look at him from the departure gate to see him waving, well, he's too far away to see them anyway.

_**Okay, so, sorry?  
In all honesty, I'm not sure why this took so long. I think it was a combination of schoolwork, exams, crushing writer's block and a 2-month-long computer crash.  
But, anyways, sorry this took so long (again) and I hope you guys enjoy! And now that I'm off for the summer I hope to be back to regular updates and new one-shots, so…fingers crossed.**_


	7. Another Year, Another Asshole

She never thought she'd be happy to be back at Barden, but here she is, smiling like a fucking idiot as she gets out of her dad's car. She winds her way to her dorm, the guy with her luggage trailing behind, to find she's rooming with Jessica this year. Beca can already tell the fellow Bella will be better than Kimmy Jin, if not perky as all hell. They head to the activities fair together, more to hang out than anything, because everyone knows that now that they've won, girls will – hopefully – be lining up to be a part of the championship team again.

She sees Jesse with the Trebles the exact moment he sees her with the Bellas, and he waves off Benji so he can go over to her. He lifts her up off the ground in a bone-crushing hug, one she returns happily. She tries to ignore the eyes she can feel on her, and is for the most part successful.

When he sets her down, she immediately leans back up to kiss him quickly before escaping from his arms and running back to the Bellas, leaving him confused and wanting on the sidewalk.

Later, because she knows he's staying in the Treble house now, she heads down to it to properly welcome him back to Barden, and to her, in what she knows can only be one of his favourite ways (and no, it's not watching movies).

The first month of school passes quickly, with Beca actually trying in her classes, for a change. She switched her dad-made schedule the first day of classes, along with her major, and she's now majoring happily in music and only taking required academics. Her dad's happy with this, for the most part, because at least she's going to classes.

Auditions are upon them surprisingly quickly, and before she knows it Beca's sitting in the auditorium calling out, "Alright nerds, let's go with…Stronger, by Kelly Clarkson." ("It's tradition to do Kelly Clarkson at auditions!" Aubrey had said one time last year when one of the Bellas had expressed her envy of Beca not having to sing 'Since U Been Gone'.)

The next 3 hours were spent listening to a few good singers, and a lot of horrible ones, and both throwing and being hit by balled-up papers, courtesy of Jesse.

The Bellas decided on two decent girls, Jane and Sara. Beca wasn't sure who the Trebles had decided on, but knew they had to get at least 3 new singers.

They didn't see each other until after the initiation ceremonies, at the party. She's talking to one of the BU Harmonics – it surprised everyone – when he randomly comes up behind her and slides his arms around her waist, nestling his head onto her shoulder.

"Hello," she says, turning her head to look at him. His eyes are wide and innocent looking, and they make her laugh. "Please tell me you aren't already drunk."

She feels him shake his head as best he can in his current position. "Nah, I'm good. I am going to go get a drink though. Want one?"

She nods, and he untangles himself from her to go get their drinks. The BU Harmonic she'd been talking to has left, so Beca's left standing alone like her first time here.

She looks around to find some freshman, a Treble, judging by his maroon hoodie, walking towards her.

"Hey gorgeous," he says, sliding up next to her, cockiness rolling off of him.

"No," she says, spotting Jesse by the drinks table, and groaning when she sees he's nowhere close to coming back to her.

The idiot next to her seems to think it was meant for him, and says, "Yeah, I have that effect on the ladies."

She gives him a blank stare Kimmy Jin would be proud of, and deadpans, "I'm a lesbian."

He raises an eyebrow. "No you're not. I know a lesbian when I see one. I'm Dave, by the way. And you?"

"I'm taken." She doesn't know why, but she doesn't want him to know her name. She sees Jesse starting to make his way over – finally -, and calls Stacie over to distract Dave. It seems to work, and she escapes to Jesse's side.

He seems to know something's bothering her, because as he passes her her drink he asks, "What's up?"

"Nothing." She doesn't have the heart to tell him he recruited an asshole.

"So who are your new girls?" he asks, sipping his drink.

She sips her own as she looks around for them. When she spots them, talking to Stacie—who, as it turns out, doesn't like Dave either, apparently—and Lilly, sipping drinks of their own, she points to them. "Jane and Sara. Who are your new guys?"

He points to first a tall kid with black hair, then the kid next to him, and then Dave. "Jake, Andy, and Dave." He says Dave's name differently, it coming out almost angry.

"I take it you don't like Dave."

He shrugs, putting his cup to his lips again before saying against it, "Something about him just erks me."

She hides her smile behind her cup.

Jesse manages to get both himself and her drunk enough that within the hour, they're in the middle of the mess of people dancing on the flat ground by Justin's laptop. She disentangles herself from the throbbing mass of people when she does a turn in place and sees Dave slowly making his way towards her, and she knows she just can't deal with _that _right now.

Jesse follows her out of the crowd to find her bouncing on her toes and shivering slightly. Before he can say anything, however, she presses her small frame up against his larger one, standing on her tiptoes to whisper into his ear in a low voice, "Wanna get out of here?"

And yes, he most certainly does.


	8. Radio Station Hires

Beca gets to the radio station before Jesse, even though their shifts start at the same time, but she's no Luke, and he left the station to her anyways, so she sets up a playlist on the computer and sits in the booth, looking at the applications for interns. She doesn't hear Jesse come up behind her, and jumps so hard the chair spins when he taps her shoulder. She slides the headphones off her ears to hear him laughing, and she glares at him until he shuts up.

"You're late, you know," she says, and spins back to the desk to announce the next song.

"Aren't I always?" he replies, leaning over her shoulder to see what she's doing.

"Dave applied for an internship," she informs him, passing him the paper with his application over her shoulder without looking up.

His face scrunches up as he looks over the paper. "Do we have to hire him?"

She nods without looking at him, and says, "We need them both." She gestures with her chin to the other application sitting next to her. She does look back to smirk, though, and say, "We can make them stack CDs this year."

He grins back. "And ban them from having sex on the desk."

He can't actually be there the next day when Dave and the other intern, a girl named Alex, who Beca immediately likes, come in for their first day, because he has class, so she greets them on her own. She blasts music through the studio louder than she normally would for the occasion, and settles herself in the booth to wait for them. The second she sees the door open, she swings out of her chair, grabs a case full of CDs, and whisks out the door.

Dave and Alex are both standing there, Alex looking extremely uncomfortable due to Dave hitting on her, but he stops the second he sees Beca coming out of the booth. She ignores him completely, dumping the crate into his arms and saying, "I'm Beca. I'm co-runner of the station. Start stacking these," before she heads back to the booth. She stops just before she closes the door, because she can faintly hear one of her older mixes coming from Alex's headphones that are around her neck between tracks. She turns to look at her.

"What's that?"

Alex looks down and fiddles with her headphones. "Oh, I downloaded it onto my phone last year off the station website. I love it. Do you know who mixed it, by any chance?"

In response, Beca waves. "You're talking to her." She just catches the awestruck look on Alex's face before she goes back to her seat, this time leaving the door open.

Dave tries to come into the booth to talk to her a total of 7 times—after the second time, she'd closed the door, even if it didn't help—before Jesse's class ends. She hears the bell on the door ring during a break between songs, and, upon seeing Jesse walk in, she practically jumps out of her seat to greet him.

She basically jumps Jesse, pressing her body against his and kissing him passionately. He's surprised, she can tell, but he responds quickly, almost dropping the bag of takeout he has in one hand. When she breaks away for air, he asks, "Not that I mind, but what was that?"

She smirks as she untangles herself from him, grabbing the bag from his hand and gesturing for him to follow her into the booth, winking at the two interns on her way. Dave looks pissed beyond relief, while Alex looks amused as she peeks through a bookshelf.

In the privacy of the booth, she says, plopping down and digging through the bag, "Dave's been hitting on me all day."

Jesse almost falls off the desk. "What?"

She shrugs, taking a bite out of the burger he's gotten her. "He did at initiation night too. He's a creep."

"Huh. Is that what was bothering you that night?" Jesse leaves his food sitting on the desk beside him, still in the bag and all, as she nods and he stares off into the corner of the radio booth with a look on his face Beca can only describe as disgruntled.

She gets up out of her chair to stand in front of him, waving her hand in front of his face.

"Earth to Jesse?"

He shakes his head, his eyes finally focusing on her face, slightly darkened by jealousy.

"I knew there was a reason I didn't like him," he grumbles into her hair as he pulls her into his lap. Beca lets out a surprised—Beca Mitchell doesn't _squeak_—, but lets him; it's not like he'd ever hurt her.

She pulls his chin up, forcing him to look at her, and stares intently into his eyes. "Hmm," she says, pretending to be confused. "I thought your eyes were brown, but they seem to be turning green."

Jesse pinches her waist in punishment of her teasing. "I get it, I'm jealous."

Beca slides off of him, back into her desk chair so she can set up the next few hours of radio broadcast. "You have no reason to be," she says quietly, not looking at him. She feels him kiss her temple, then hears the rustle of the food bag as he finally goes looking for his food.

"I know."

They spend the next 20 minutes in the booth, eating and talking, with Beca setting up playlists and commercials so they can leave the station and go watch movies in Jesse's new dorm room—which he's sharing with Benji again, somehow.

When they finally do leave the booth, Alex is up on the second floor, looking like she wants to jump off the balcony as Dave loudly talks about his latest sexual conquest. In retaliation, Beca turns the dial outside the booth until her latest mix is blasting through the station, effectively drowning out Dave's incredibly annoying voice. She smiles sweetly at him when he throws an annoyed look at her, and then turns it down again to tell the two of them, "You guys are free to go. See you tomorrow."

She pulls Jesse out the door by their entwined hands before Dave can try to start talking to again.

Beca's laying on her stomach in Jesse's bed, playing with his laptop as he goes through his DVD collection, trying to decide what they should watch on this particular movication.

"How about _Say Anything_?" he asks from somewhere in front of her.

"Seen it," she says without looking up, not thinking.

"Aw, c'mon, Bec, it's a classic John…" his head pops up by the footboard. "What?"

Her eyes widen. "Oh. Um. Yeah. I've seen it."

He looks incredulous. "You. Beca Mitchell. Who hates movies. When?"

She doesn't look at him, instead hides behind his laptop as she says, "Last year."

He doesn't say anything for long enough that she looks up at him again. He stares at her a second before asking carefully, "When last year?"

She bites her lip. "You know, during that awesome period when no one was talking to me and everyone hated me. I also watched Jaws, and Rocky. And E.T. And some others."

She knows he knows that the movies she just listed were all movies he'd brought to their first 'picnic', as he likes to call it, but he doesn't say anything. Instead, he forces a light tone and says, "Well, you did say last year we'd have to cross a lot of movies off of the movication list."

She smiles at him in a silent thank you, and he gives her a minuscule nod in return before going in search of another movie.

"Slumdog Millionaire?"

This time, she leans over the end of the bed, smirking at him as he holds up the case hopefully.

"Seen it too."

_**Riff-off next chapter!**_


	9. Riff Off

The riff-off is a week later, and this time, the Bellas are determined to win.

Beca blows warm air into her hands before rubbing them together. Her fingers are really the only parts of them that are cold, thanks to the fingerless style of her gloves, but she refuses to say or think anything bad about them.

She looks over at the Trebles, and yes, okay, Jesse, who is rubbing his own hands together and bouncing up and down on the spot. He catches her eye, and mouths something to her that she doesn't quite catch, but doesn't get the chance to ask him about because the BU Harmonics start the siren noises, and Justin walks out into the middle of the pool, arms outstretched.

"Welcome to the Riff-Off!" He yells out like last year, and receives just as much cheering as last year.

"You all know the rules, match the word exactly—" he gives a pointed look to the Bellas— "and no repeating songs. The prize is the same as last year. And our first category is…"

He points the electronic spinner to the wall, and waits to speak until it lands on…

"TV theme songs!" He exclaims. "And they have to have words in them!" This time, he gives a pointed look to the Trebles before backing away, signaling the start of the competition.

Andy, one of the new Trebles, immediately runs up, beating Stacie, and starts singing.

"_Through early morning fog I see  
visions of the things to be  
the pains that are withheld for me  
I realize and I can see  
that suicide is painless  
it brings on many changes  
and…"_

Jesse can see Beca perk up, and silently groans as she runs forward and starts, yes, rapping.

"_And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there__  
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-air__"_

Thankfully, this year, the rest of the pool actually know what she's singing, and the crowd is doing a mix of cheering and laughing, and all of the Bellas have joined in. The majority of the BU Harmonics and Trebles look lost, but Benji is looking hopeful, trying to find a shared word._  
_

"_In west Philadelphia born and raised__  
On the playground where I spent most of my days__  
Chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool__  
And all shooting some b-ball outside of the school__  
When…"_

Benji runs up now, and starts singing something that Beca is only slightly mortified to recognize.

"_when we wake__  
__With no way to go back__  
__I'm standing on my own__  
__But now I'm not alone__  
__Avengers Assemble!"_

Enough of the Trebles recognize it that he has some instrumental, and the rest stand awkwardly in the background, pretending to know what Benji's currently winning with. Out of the corner of his eye, however, Jesse can see a BU Harmonic making her way up to the middle.

___"Always we will fight as one__  
__'Til…"_

She smoothly cuts him off, and sings,

"'_Til the one day when the lady met this fellow__  
__And they knew it was much more than a hunch,__  
__That this__…"_

That's as far as she gets before Jessica runs up and starts,

"_this illusion  
I was soaring ever higher__  
But I flew too high___

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man_  
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man__  
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming__  
I can hear them say_"

The crowd is joining in again at this point, and Beca walks up to join Jessica in the chorus.

"_Carry on my wayward son__  
There'll be peace when you are done__  
Lay your weary head to rest__…"_

The Bellas finally get cut off by a High Note, who attempts one of the weirdest—and highest—covers of the Doctor Who theme.

Justin cuts him off within seconds, shaking his head. "Always the High Notes first," he says loudly. "You are…Cut Off!" The crowd and remaining teams joins him in the last two words, hand movements and all.

"The next category is…" the spinner is once again pointed at the wall, this time landing on…

"Songs Ruined by Glee!"

Beca silently thanks Jessica for loving it so much and making her watch it every possible moment in their dorm room as she thinks back to the multiple marathons of Glee she'd been forced to endure these past couple months.

Jane runs into the middle as soon as Justin is gone, beating Trebles and BU Harmonics alike.

"_So scared of breaking it  
That you won't let it bend  
And I wrote two hundred letters  
I will never send  
Sometimes these cuts are so much deeper than they seem  
You'd rather cover up  
I'd rather let them bleed  
So let me be  
And I'll set you.."_

Dave cut her off.

"_You know, I wish that I had Jessie's girl,__  
__I wish that I had Jessie's girl__  
__Where can I find a woman like that"_

Jesse and Beca gag at practically the same time, and Beca sees Jesse mouth at Dave's back, "C'mon, man, really?" He doesn't stop though, and the Trebles reluctantly back him up as Beca rushes through a song list in her head.

___"I play along with the charade,__  
__there doesn't seem to be a reason to change__  
__You know, I feel so dirty__  
__When they start talking cute__  
__I want…"_

Beca finally finds a song that works, and rushes up to cut Dave off. For God's sake, he isn't even that _good._ She shoves him a little too hard as she sings,

"_want it__  
She said, Any way you want it__  
That's the way you need it__  
Any way you want it"_

Jesse tries not to let the happiness he's currently feeling show on his face, about both her choice of song, and that Dave—Treble or not—got cut off, but his girlfriend, no less; the same girl he'd been singing to/about.__

"I was alone_  
I never knew__  
What good love could do__  
Ooh, then we touched__  
Then we sang__  
About the lovin' things___

Ooh, all night, all…"

Kolio jumps in.

"_all the bass sound  
Enough to shake and kick holes in the ground__  
__'Cause my style's like a chemical spill  
Feasible rhymes you can vision and feel  
Conducted and formed, this is a hell of a concept  
We make it hype and you want to step  
With…"_

Sara runs up this time.

_"With a taste of your lips, I'm on a ride  
You're toxic, I'm slippin' under  
With a taste of a poison paradise  
I'm addicted to you, don't you know that you're toxic?__  
__And I love what you do, but you know that you're toxic  
Don't…"_

Jesse cuts her off smoothly, singing to Beca,

"_don't we go  
Somewhere only we know?  
Somewhere only we know?_

Oh simple thing where have you gone?  
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on  
So tell me when you're gonna let me in  
I'm getting tired and I…"

Beca walks up, casually, cutting him off as she sings,

"_I watched  
As he tried to reassemble it  
And my momma swore that  
She would never let herself forget  
And that was the day that I promised  
I'd never sing of love  
If it does not exist  
But darlin'  
You are the only exception!__  
You are the only exception!__  
You are the only exception!__  
You are the only exception!  
And I'm on my way to believing!"_

No one cuts her off, and she and the Bellas slowly fade out. Jesse, who is still mere inches away from her, because he didn't back up when she cut him off, grins down at her, and she smiles shyly back before backing away with the Bellas, and he with to the Trebles.

Justin comes up and loudly declares, "Harmonics, because you did not sing one song, you are…Cut Off! The next category is…"

The spinner lands directly on the line between 'Black Michael Jackson' and 'White Michael Jackson' but before Justin can say anything or spin again, Jane and Sara look at each other, grinning, before running up and belting out in perfect sync and harmony,

"_I took my baby on a Saturday bang__  
__Boy is that girl with you__  
__Yes we're one and the same"_

The crowd can only stare in shock as the Bellas join in, most of them either laughing and/or in complete awe of their newest members.__

_"Now I believe in miracles__  
__And a miracle has happened tonight___

_But, if you're thinkin' about my baby__  
__It don't matter if you're black or white___

_They print my message in the Saturday Sun__  
__I had to tell them I ain't second to none___

_And I told about equality and it's true__  
__Either you're wrong or you're right___

_But, if you're thinkin' about my baby__  
__It don't matter if you're black or white___

_I am tired of this devil__  
__I am tired of this stuff__  
__I am tired of this business__  
__Sew when the going gets rough__  
__I ain't scared of your brother__  
__I ain'ts scared of no sheets__  
__I ain't scared of nobody__  
__Girl when the goin' gets mean___

_Protection__  
__For gangs, clubs, and nations__  
__Causing grief in human relations__  
__It's a turf war on a global scale__  
__I'd rather hear both sides of the tale__  
__See, it's not about races__  
__Just places__  
__Faces__  
__Where your blood comes from__  
__Is where your space is__  
__I've seen the bright get duller__  
__I'm not going to spend my life being a color___

_Don't tell me you agree with me__  
__When I saw you kicking dirt in my eye___

_But, if you're thinkin' about my baby__  
__It don't matter if you're black or white___

_I said if you're thinkin' of being my baby__  
__It don't matter if you're black or white___

_I said if you're thinkin' of being my brother__  
__It don't matter if you're black or white___

_Ooh, ooh__  
__Yea, yea, yea now__  
__Ooh, ooh__  
__Yea, yea, yea now___

_It's black, it's white__  
__It's tough for them to get by__  
__It's black, it's white__"_

The crowd above, Trebles, Harmonics, and even Justin—although he later won't admit to it—cheer when they finally finish, Jane and Sara practically collapsing on the Bellas, who are quick to right them and hug them, all wearing identical grins.

"And the Bellas win!" Justin announces, as if everyone hasn't already figured it out for themselves. Beca takes the trophy from him, before practically bouncing her way back to the Bellas.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Beca asks the two young girls, grinning.

They shrug, looking at each other, before Jane says, "We were actually talking about this yesterday, would you believe it? After you guys told us all the possible categories at the end of practice yesterday, Sara mentioned how funny it would be if it landed between Black and White, and…yeah." She grins.

"Well, it was great," Jessica assures them, before looking to Beca. "I'm heading back to the dorm. You coming?"

She shakes her head, gesturing back towards the Trebles. "I've got a boyfriend to gloat in the face of."

"Speaking of boytoys…" Fat Amy says just before Beca feels arms encircle her waist and a head rest on her shoulder. Jesse kisses the side of her head as she leans into his chest.

"You girls were great," he says, looking up at Jane and Sara, who grin back, giggling.

"Thanks," Sara says, then, eyeing the two of them, "I guess that explains why there's no rule against the Trebles and Bellas being together this year."

"Pshh, they were totally doing it last year before the rule got lifted, "Stacie says, waving her hand when Beca tries to interrupt her. "Oh, come on, you basically jumped him at the finals."

Beca opens her mouth to say something, but shuts it again, realizing she's right. Instead, she halfway turns so she can look at Jesse.

"Have you killed Dave yet?"

The smile he gives her is slightly less authentic than before, and he doesn't answer. She turns back to the Bellas, ignoring their slightly puzzled looks, and says to them,

"Practice on Monday, 1p.m. See you guys then," before walking off with Jesse.

She does her best to ignore Dave's heavy staring.

_**Songs used:  
**_**TV Theme Songs  
**_**Suicide is Painless (M.A.S.H)  
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme  
Fight as One (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes)  
The Brady Bunch theme  
Carry On Wayward Son-Kansas (Supernatural, because this is totally the theme song, okay?)  
**_**Songs Ruined by Glee  
**_**Misery-Maroon 5  
Jesse's Girl-Rick Springfield  
Any Way You Want It-Journey  
Ice Ice Baby-Vanilla Ice  
Toxic-Brittany Spears  
Somewhere Only We Know-Keane  
The Only Exception-Paramore  
**_**Black/White Michael Jackson  
**_**Black or White-Michael Jackson**___


	10. (Sort of) Girls' Night

Beca and Jesse spend the next couple of months working on their songs for Regionals, complaining about schoolwork (this is mostly Beca), and running the radio station.

Beca adamantly refuses to tell Jesse their set list, not even taking the bribe of the Treble's own songs, even if Fat Amy wanted her to.

She's at the radio station, alone except for Alex, who's stacking CDs while the music blares-Beca almost wishes Alex had joined the Bellas, because she's found the freshman has an amazing ear for good music. She makes a mental note to herself that if they ever need help choosing a song or-hell, if she needs help picking a song for a mix, she'll go to Alex.

Right now, she's on her MacBook, but in the booth, with it on the empty desk space as she mixes some new stuff. It's almost midnight, so they don't even have to be there in the first place, but neither of them have classes tomorrow, and they both agreed earlier in the night that the radio station is one of their favourite places on campus.

She finally shuts her laptop, declaring the mix hopeless for the moment, and goes outside of the booth, deciding helping Alex stack some CDs wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Jesse's supposed to be picking her up around one—he's currently out with Trebles at a karaoke bar, off all places—so she's got some time to kill, anyway.

"Want some help?" She asks, even if she's going to ignore her if the answer is anything negative.

Alex looks up from the crate. "Oh. Um. Sure. Thanks."

"No problem. You're still free to go anytime, you know."

"I know. And I also know that since I don't have keys, I'm going to have to leave around one anyways, so I'm good where I am, thanks."

"Okay then."

They work in silence for a while, until the minute hand is nearing the 9 on the clock above the booth, when Alex asks, voice hesitant,

"Beca?"

Beca looks over from where she's trying in vain to get a CD onto the top shelf—something Jesse's had to shelf since the beginning of freshman year—and drops onto flat feet from tip-toe.

"Yeah?"

"Did it-" she stops, looking down at the CD she's fiddling with. She continues looking at it as she starts again.

"Did it, like, take you a while to like, make friends here?"

Beca smiles. "Alex," she says softly, waiting until the girl looks at her to continue. "I'll be honest with you; when I first came here, I didn't want friends. But, the people I somehow ended up hanging around with kinda forced their way into friendship. And actual standing relationships." She smiles to herself.

"But yeah, it's gonna definitely take some time. If you want, you can come and hang with the Bellas the next time we have a girls' night." (She can finally say that without gagging, or shuddering, or both.)  
"I was actually thinking about asking you for help with our set, anyways, so…"

Alex perks up. "Seriously? Me?"

Beca shifts her weight from one foot to the other. "Well, yeah. You have a good ear for music."

Alex flushes at the compliment. She goes back to work, hiding behind a shelf before she says, "Thanks, Beca."

Beca hopes she can see her smile.

When Jesse picks her up 20 minutes later—completely sober, thankfully—Alex hugs her quickly before running off into the night towards the freshman dorms.

When Jesse asks her about it as they walk back to his dorm, she tells him what she told Alex, and he hugs her closer to him so he can kiss her temple.

The following week, after a 3 hour long grueling rehearsal, Stacie insists that everyone come over to her new apartment for a girls' night, so Beca asks if she can bring Alex.

"What, Jesse not enough man for you?" Stacie asks, while Fat Amy nods understandingly. Before she can start telling—no doubt horrific and overly graphic—stories of her multiple boyfriends, Beca says quickly,

"No! God, no. She's one of our interns at the station. I was actually thinking of asking her to help me on the mix for semi-finals."

The girls nod in understanding, and Stacie says she's welcome to come.

Alex shows up 10 minutes later than the last girl-Denise-, but everyone welcomes her, acting like she was one of them.

"We're really looking forward to seeing what you can do for us with semi-finals!" Ashley says, and Alex smiles, tucking her chin into her chest.

Half an hour later, Beca gets up from one of Stacie's comfiest armchairs in the living room—where they've hooked up her laptop to the TV and are watching some of the weirdest videos on Youtube Beca's ever seen—to get the door for what she presumes is pizza, and is in fact about half of the Trebles, Jesse at the front.

She sighs, but they both know she's not mad.

"How do you guys even know where Stacie lives?"

Jesse shrugs, holding up the package in his arms.

"A magician never reveals his secrets. We have pizza."

She huffs, but moves out of the doorway so they can come in. She goes back into the living room, yelling,

"Who texted a Treble?"

As it turns out, the extra people aren't too much of a problem. Stacie's living room is surprisingly large for such a small apartment, with a lot of huge, comfy furniture.

Jesse ends up on the armchair with Beca, with her curled up on his lap, looking eerily like a cat; Donald—who was visiting—and Lilly are sharing the matching armchair; Alex—whose ears had turned pink when the Trebles had come in and she'd squeaked, "Jake?" (turns out he's in her physics class as her partner)—is on the floor next to him now, head on his shoulder; Benji, who's sitting surprisingly close to Jessica—is one of two Trebles on the couch, the other being Harry, who's seated next to Sara. The rest of the Bellas are spread among the floor, the remainder of the couch, and the matching love seat.

They end up watching a movie from—of course—Jesse's backpack.

"Do you, like, carry movies around with you 24/7?" Beca asks as he plugs in the disc the Bellas had chosen from his 'travel collection', he'd called it, arms crossed.

He merely grins like a five year old at her as he gets up, giving the remote to Stacie, and walks back towards her. "You know you love it."

The Bellas look at each other with wide eyes, all too aware of Beca's hesitation on anything involving love, but she merely rolls her eyes at him and allows him to pick her up out of the chair so he can sit before placing her back on his lap.

They end up watching 3 movies in total, and by the time the 3rd finishes, it's past one a.m. Most have managed to stay awake, but Beca fell asleep on Jesse halfway through the second movie, a combination of her aversion to movies, exhausting rehearsals, and late nights mixing.

Benji and Jessica helpfully pack up his DVDs while he struggles to stand up and arrange Beca in his arms without waking her up.  
He's for the most part successful, and he bids everyone goodnight, walking out the door with Benji—who now has his bag for him—, Jessica, and Beca in his arms.

He hears Fat Amy say from inside, "I'm going to get diabetes from them, soon."

Benji leaves him and Jessica once they get back to campus—in Benji's car, thankfully—but not before Jessica stops him and says, "You totally have to show me some of those magic tricks. Can I come by your dorm sometime? Beca obviously knows where it is."

Jesse widens his eyes, trying to hide his smile, while Benji's cheeks go bright red.

"Um, yeah," he stammers out. "That'd be, um, awesome."

Jessica smiles the biggest grin Jesse's ever seen in his life at Benji, before kissing his cheek quickly. "See you around. C'mon, Jesse, I'll let you in to our dorm."

Benji can do little more than stand there as Jesse walks after her, but he loudly whispers, "Dude!" at his friend, to which Benji grins.

The walk back is mostly silent, and Jessica graciously holds open every door for him, and unlocks the dorm room she shares with Beca.

He lays her down on her bed, getting up to leave, but she holds onto his arm is a vice grip, until he finally whispers to her, "Alright, alright. Jeez."

He hears Jessica giggle from the other side of the room as he gets under the covers with Beca, waiting until they cover him to take off his jeans and sliding them from the floor.

"Goodnight," he hears Jessica whisper quietly.

"Goodnight," he whispers back, Beca curling tighter into him as the words.

_**Regionals up next!**_


	11. Regionals

_**Please ignore that the songs they sing may or not have come out after the approximate time of regionals, and we're good to go. They just seemed to fit with the groups.**_

The Bellas stand together near the back of the room as a group they didn't hear the name of perform. Beca can't tell the difference between this group and the one from last year, besides the fact that this group has a stunning lack of sock puppets.

She shakes herself out quickly as the singers on stage finish to a minimal amount of applause, and the host announces "Last Year's ICCA champions….The Barden Bellas!"

The get onto stage, all carrying mics like last year, and get into position.

Sara starts.

_Puttin' my defenses up  
Cause I don't wanna fall in love  
If I ever did that  
I think I'd have a heart attack_

It's met with cheers as the rest of the girls join in, Jane taking the lead.

_Never put my love out on the line  
Never said yes to the guy  
Never had trouble getting what I want  
But when it comes to you, I'm never good enough_

Beca takes over, immediately finding Jesse in the small theater.

_When I don't care  
I can play 'em like a Ken doll  
Won't wash my hair  
Then make 'em bounce like a basketball_

_But you make me wanna act like a girl  
Paint my nails and wear high heels  
Yes, you make me so nervous  
And I just can't hold your hand_

Stacie, Fat Amy, Cynthia Rose, and Jane all join Beca in the chorus.

_You make me glow, but I cover up  
Won't let it show, so I'm_

_Puttin' my defenses up  
Cause I don't wanna fall in love  
If I ever did that  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack _

It's back to just Beca.

_Never break a sweat for the other guys  
When you come around, I get paralyzed  
And every time I try to be myself  
It comes out wrong like a cry for help_

_It's just not fair  
Pain's more trouble than love is worth  
I gasp for air  
It feels so good, but you know it hurts_

_But you make me wanna act like a girl  
Paint my nails and wear perfume  
Yes, you make me so nervous  
And I just can't hold your hand_

Jane and Sara sing alone this time.

_You make me glow, but I cover up  
Won't let it show, so I'm_

_Puttin' my defenses up  
Cause I don't wanna fall in love  
If I ever did that  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack_

Beca's back to looking at Jesse again as she sings.

_The feelings are lost in my lungs  
They're burning, I'd rather be numb  
And there's no one else to blame  
So scared I take off in a run  
I'm flying too close to the sun  
And I burst into flame_

The same girls from the first chorus come back in to finish off.

_You make me glow, but I cover up  
Won't let it show, so I'm_

_Puttin' my defenses up  
Cause I don't wanna fall in love  
If I ever did that  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
I think I'd have a heart attack  
_

The choreography is flawless, with just enough hip action to get every male in the audience interested and watching; the singing is aca-awesome, as Chloe would put it, and the Bellas know it, as well as the crowd. They finish to loud enough cheering that the host has to wait a little longer than usual to announce the next group, giving Beca enough time to quickly kiss her boyfriend before he goes onto stage.

"Good luck following that," she whispers into his ear before gently nipping at the ear lope, knowing it drives him crazy when she does that. He basically stumbles onto the stage, and Beca ignores Stacie's little whoop of approval as she sits down next to her, eyes on the stage.

Jesse takes the lead, staring right at Beca.

_You're a troublemaker,  
You're a troublemaker_

She grins at their choice of song. Jake is apparently taking over Donald as bass/rapper, as she can hear him in the background.

_You ain't nothin' but a troublemaker, girl_

Jesse's doing those dorky-as-all-hell moves he always does, the moves he somehow always manages to make hot as fuck.

_You had me hooked again from the minute I sat down  
The way you bite your lip got my head spinnin' around  
After a drink or two I was putty in your hands  
I don't know if I'll have the strength to stand, whoa oh…_

_Trouble troublemaker, yeah  
That's your middle name, whoa oh…  
I know you're no good but you're stuck in my brain  
And I wanna know…_

_Why does it feel so good but hurt so bad?  
My mind keeps saying  
'Run as fast as you can'  
I say I'm done but then you pull me back, whoa oh…  
I swear you're giving me a heart attack  
Troublemaker!_

_It's like you're always there in the corners of my mind  
I see you silhouette every time I close my eyes  
There must be poison in those finger tips of yours  
Cause I keep coming back again for more, whoa oh…_

_Trouble troublemaker, yeah  
That's your middle name, whoa oh…  
I know you're no good but you're stuck in my brain  
And I wanna know…_

_Why does it feel so good but hurt so bad?  
My mind keeps saying  
'Run as fast as you can'  
I say I'm done but then you pull me back, whoa oh…  
I swear you're giving me a heart attack  
Troublemaker!_

_Why does it feel so good but hurt so bad?  
My mind keeps saying  
'Run as fast as you can'  
I say I'm done but then you pull me back, whoa oh…  
I swear you're giving me a heart attack  
Troublemaker!_

Jake takes over, rapping like the best of them.

_Maybe I'm insane  
Cause I keep doing the same damn thing  
Thinking one day we gon' change  
But you know just how to work that back  
And make me forget my name  
What the hell I do I won't remember  
I'll be gone until November  
And you'll show again next summer, yeah  
Typical middle name is Prada  
Fit you like a glove girl  
I'm sick of the drama  
You're a troublemaker  
But damn girl it's like I love the trouble  
And I can't even explain why_

Jesse comes back in, with Benji backing him up easily.

_Why does it feel so good but hurt so bad, whoa oh  
My mid keeps saying  
'Run as fast as you can'  
Troublemaker  
I say I'm done but then you pull me back, whoa oh  
I swear you're giving me a heart attack  
Troublemaker_

_Why does it feel so good but hurt so bad, whoa oh  
My mid keeps saying  
'Run as fast as you can'  
Troublemaker  
I say I'm done but then you pull me back, whoa oh  
I swear you're giving me a heart attack  
Troublemaker_

They finish to applause that's almost as loud as that of the Bellas, but not quite. Beca gets up so she can meet Jesse near the stage. She kisses him the second he's close enough to her.

"Putty in my hands, huh?" She says against his lips, loving how she can practically see the way is brain turns to mush at her words.

"I think that's my answer," she says, smirking as she pulls away from him. She laughs as she goes to back to the Bellas and hears him mutter,

"Tease."

The Bellas come in first, and the Trebles in second, and Beca and Jesse both laugh at the obvious dried glue all over the trophy.

It doesn't get thrown through a window this time, and Beca doesn't go to jail that night, and almost ruin her relationship with Jesse.

Amy also doesn't have to subject herself to what is the torture of vertical running again.

_**For future**__**reference, any and all names of Trebles not named in the movie are from .com, aka **_**Sirka H. J. Smith **_**here on .**_

**Songs Used  
**_**Heart Attack-Demi Lovato  
Troublemaker-Olly Murs feat. Flo Rida**_


	12. Sick

Winter break comes and goes, with Beca staying with her dad and Jesse going back to his parents' house for the two weeks.

At the a capella party the day before break starts, Jesse gives Beca a new ear spike and a music note necklace, and she gives him an original Breakfast Club poster she stumbled across in her dad's attic, of all places.

When they come back, he sees her at the radio station the first day, and then nothing.

Jesse doesn't hear from Beca besides two or three worded texts for three days, and he starts getting seriously worried. Last he checked, they were good. Really good. Right?

He asks Jessica, but she's been spending most of her time with Benji, and she says whenever she goes over there Beca's sleeping.

"There hasn't been a Bellas practice for like, 4 days though. Does that help?"

He stand to leave, and opens the door. "Yeah, it does. Thanks. See you guys later," he says as he leaves.

When he gets to Beca's dorm, he knocks, but all he hears is a non-committal grunt from inside. He tries the doorknob, and it turns, so he goes inside.

Beca's curled up on her bed in a pair of yoga pants and a tank top, laptop in front of her, playing The Breakfast Club. Her hair is tied up away from her face in a messy bun, there's a heating pad on her stomach, but it doesn't look like its being used at the moment. Her duvet's kicked down around her feet, and she looks absolutely miserable. When she turns to look at him, the makeup around her eyes is mostly gone, and what's left is badly smudged.

"Hey," she says, before curling up tighter around her laptop.

He kneels down beside the bed near her head, touching her forehead; it's burning, and so is the rest of her skin.

"Hey," he says back, and she leans into his cool touch.

"Why didn't you call me? Or one of the Bellas? Or even Chloe? Jesus, Bec."

She shrugs as best she can laying down. "I didn't want to bother anyone, I guess. God, that sounds stupid, doesn't it?"

He nods, but doesn't say anything else. He texts Benji, letting him know he won't be back for a while and what's up with Beca.  
Benji texts back quickly, Jessica's gonna stay with him again so Beca and Jesse can have some privacy, and that the Bellas all know now, and that they all hope she feels better.

He looks around the room; there's a bottle of water within arm's reach of Beca, but it's over half full.  
A barely touched sleeve of crackers sits next to it, and he sighs.

He looks over at hear, and the movie that's now paused on her laptop.

"Don't you usually use your headphones?"

She doesn't look at him, instead stares resolutely at the screen as she says in a quiet voice, "My head hurts too much for them."

He sighs and digs around in her stuff—it's nothing he hasn't seen before—until he finds a bottle of Advil. He replaces that for the water bottle, tells her, "I'll be back in a minute," and goes down the hall to the bathroom, where he refills her bottle, and then buys another one at the vending machine in the hall with loose change from his pocket.

Once back in her dorm room, he makes her down two of the Advil tablets as well as almost all of the water bottle, and she's too tired to protest; running a fever of over 100 isn't exactly the best conditions for sleeping.

He sits down on the bed next to her, not letting her lay back down, and checks her out more thoroughly, asking questions here and there. It seems to be just a fever and an extremely upset stomach, but she tells him she hasn't puked or anything, so he counts that as a plus.

He lets her lay back down again, gently rubbing her stomach to maybe help with some of the pain. She makes a noise of appreciation, so he guesses it is.

"Thank you," she murmurs quietly, so quiet he can barely it.

"For what?" He asks, brow furrowed.

"Noticing I wasn't around. Caring enough to check on me. And help me."

His gaze turns quizzical, and he waits until she turns to look at him before he answers.

"Bec, why would you think I wouldn't?"

She doesn't look at him as she says, "No one ever does."

He gathers her into his chest and kisses her hair, and doesn't say anything else.

Her fever breaks the next day, early in the morning, but Jesse insists she stay in bed and rest for the day still.

"You just don't want the Bellas to have practice because you know you're going to lose to us again," she accuses, even as she gets into bed.

He insists on watching movies to pass the time, and she insists she'll only watch The Breakfast Club, so they end up watching it 6 times before Jesse finally puts on Disney's Aladdin when she isn't looking.

"Ass," she mutters, but she watches it anyway, laughing at him when he sings along.

Jessica comes back to the room around two, and she and Jesse hook his laptop up to her tiny TV in the center of the room so she can watch Beauty and the Beast with them.

Almost all of the Bellas stop by and some points of the day, and she appreciates them caring more than they probably know. She tells each of them that there's a practice tomorrow at four, and to tell the rest of the Bellas, and Alex, because she wants her there if she can make it.

She closes the door, turning around to find Jesse staring at her.

"What?" she asks, walking back to him.

"I'm just not used to seeing you without makeup," he replies, pulling her onto him. Her hair falls into his face, and he blows it away dramatically.

She shoves his chest and rolls off of him when he starts belting out 'Just The Way You Are'. Jessica's left again to go to class, so Beca shuts him up by kissing him, and when he complains about her getting him sick, she climbs back on top of him and licks her way down his jaw.

He shuts up about getting sick pretty damn quickly.


	13. A mix of good and bad

Jesse's birthday is in March, so Beca spends whatever time she can away from him mixing what he calls 'their songs' (she calls them that too, but she'll never admit it) into a surprise birthday gift playlist. She finishes at 12:01 on his birthday, and she grins as she turns off her computer, satisfied, and crawls into bed, diving under her covers and curling up against Jesse's sleeping form.

"Happy birthday nerd," she whispers to his chest.

She says the same words when they wake up the next morning, and he grins.

"You're not going to make me wait for my gift, are you?" he asks, grin replaced by an anxious face.

She smirks and puts her finger to her chin, pretending to think about it. After an agonizingly long time for him, and approximately 7 seconds to her, she sighs dramatically and gets out of the bed, walking over to her desk.

The CD case isn't wrapped, but it does has a cover, and a track list on the back, both of which Denise designed for her (she's majoring in Digital Design).

She hands it to Jesse hesitantly, watching his face as he goes through the track list, smiling, smirking, and/or chuckling as he recognizes the significances of each of the songs.

Fire Starter/Without You.

She'd been in her dorm room, mixing music at her desk and pointedly ignoring the English homework on her bed.

The Bellas—or at least, the majority of them—burst in, and Ashley exclaimed, "Beca, you have to listen to this! There are some awesome songs we could perform on it!"

This turned out to be Demi Lovato's latest CD, which they forced her to listen to the whole thing, all the way through, _twice._

At the end, Jessica was going through the songs, and exclaimed,

"Beca, 'Fire Starter' is totally you!"

She gaped at her. "No it isn't."

But she and the rest of the Bellas wouldn't let it drop, and when Beca complained to Jesse, he went and looked it up on Youtube, and at the end, said,

"It really does suit you, doesn't it?"

"Dude, no!"

A week later, after he, too, refused to let it drop, she started insisting David Guetta's 'Without You' was his theme, because, "Let's face it, Jesse, you're hopeless without me."

He'd tickled her as punishment.

Don't You/Bright Lights Bigger City

He'd told her, a week after Finals, that he had to forcibly stop himself from looking at her during his performance, and, as it was, ending up looking at her a total of eight times.

She still wonders how on Earth she missed five different looks.

No Diggity/Feels Like the First Time

Because you know, they were totally eye-fucking during the Riff-Off. (Or at least he was. Beca won't admit to staring at him. Repeatedly. And singing to him. Not at all. Nope. She wasn't doing that.)

Kiss Me/Blame It On Me

Both were songs he'd told her the Trebles had forced him into listening the albums of—she's starting to sense a pattern here, seriously—and that had somehow, reminded him of them. She'd agreed, silently, once she'd heard them.

Cups/Since U Been Gone

Somehow, she'll muse about later, the two songs work together. (Audition songs, you know.)

Moves Like Jagger/Never Been Hurt

For their 'spontaneous' fundraiser duet, and another song that—Beca, this time—thought worked for them (damn Bellas and their CDs).

Somewhere Only We Know/The Only Exception

For their most recent Riff-Off.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Don't You (yes, again)

Their favourite movie songs (neither will admit whose is whose).

Buffy The Vampire Slayer theme/Doctor Who theme.

For their current favourite TV shows (again, no one except them knows which is which).

The final, number 10. track, doesn't have a title, instead just saying 'happy birthday' next to it, and when Jesse looks at her, confusion evident, she explains hesitantly,

"It's um, it's original. 100% Beca Mitchell." She coughs to hide the awkward as best she can.

He reaches his hand out, and when she takes it, he tugs her out of her desk chair and to the bed. Surprised, she lands squarely on top of him, and he smiles up at her, tucking her hair behind her ear so it doesn't get in his eye.

"This is the best birthday gift I've ever gotten. Ever," he tells her sincerely, and she ducks her head into his shoulder so he won't see her blush.

He, unfortunately, has class, but she, fortunately, does not, so she sends him off after whispering silkily into his ear what the second, more private, part of her birthday gift is to him, and then heads to the radio station.

She ignores his spluttering and she walks off, and pretends she doesn't see him almost fall flat on his face in her peripheral vision.

When she gets to the station, only Dave is there, so she quickly closes herself in the booth before he can say anything, or barely look at her, for that matter.

She talks some on the radio, but mostly she just lets it be music and the occasional commercial from sponsors that keep the radio up and running.

She has the station headphones on her ears, drowning out any background noise while she does her Musical Engineering homework-it's undoubtedly her favourite class, which is probably why she's actually doing her homework, and three days before class no less.

She locked the door when she came in, but, somehow, Dave manages to come in anyway. He leans up against the door frame with his arms crossed, and Beca thinks he couldn't possibly look less attractive to her.

"What do you want?" She doesn't look up from her homework, but she hears him push away from the frame and come closer-the booth isn't big to begin with.

"C'mon, Beca." He pulls her face toward him with a hand under her chin she slaps away in the same second with an indignant, "Dude!" He ignores her, and continues,

"We both know we're attracted to each other." He sighs dramatically. "Might as well get over it."

His fingers slide up her thigh, and she loses it.

He gasps and staggers back when she punches him in the stomach, and gapes silently at her when she turns back to her homework and says to him without looking up,

"You can go now. And never come back."

He does, and relief washes through her. She locks the station door behind him.

She doesn't tell Jesse. She doesn't know why, exactly.

She convinces herself at first it's because it's his birthday, and she doesn't want to ruin it, and he takes her mind off of Dave pretty quickly when she sees him again later that day.

A week later though, they're lying on his bed together, on their sides, facing each other after watching a movie ("Really, Jesse? _Toy Story_?" "It's a classic!") and he slides his hand up her thigh, and her thoughts go immediately to Dave's more-than-disturbing touch.

She flinches back so hard she almost falls off the bed.

His confusion is obvious, but instead on explaining, she slips off the bed as gracefully as she can with her whole head spinning, and says,

"Um, I gotta go. Class. See you later."

She tries to ignore the fact that it's almost nine at night, and the slightly crushed look on his face as she lets the door behind her.

She doesn't know why she's not telling him.

Part of her says it's because she's scared of him, but she knows that's stupid, and idiotic, and doesn't even make sense. But yes, he'll most definitely be furious, at the least mad, at Dave and his actions. She doesn't think she's quite ready to face an angry Jesse—whether or not it's directed at her—because she's never actually been good with anger.

When he comes to her dorm two days later though, she lets him in. She sits in her desk chair, gesturing to the bed to signal he can sit, but he stays standing, hands in his pockets, tension obvious.

"What's up?" She forces a light tone, and a smile, but she thinks the smile comes out more as a grimace.

"What happened Thursday?" He finally sits on the bed, and automatically reaches for one of her as a reflex. When she takes it, she can actually see some of the tension leave his shoulders.

She rubs her face with her free hand. "Geez, I'm sorry. It's just, and please don't get mad at me, 'cause I didn't want to ruin your birthday..."

She peeks at him through her fingers; he's staring at her, a crease between her eyebrows. She builds up enough courage to-she totally doesn't squeak,

"That thing on my thigh you did with your fingers?" She mimics it as best she can with the hand that's still clasped in his. "He, Dave, did it to me in the radio station on your birthday, when you were in class."

She decides quite quickly that she doesn't like, in fact hates, the sight of Jesse being mad.

He recoils from her, and her touch, dropping her hand as he gets up and starts pacing the length of the small dorm room, looking like he wants to kick something.

He yells some choice words at the air, and at Dave, and Beca does her best not to cringe-because, okay, tough as she is, there isn't enough music in the world to drown out two+ years of your parents' horrendous screaming matches. She still does though, and she hopes to whatever deity exists that he doesn't see.

He doesn't seem to, instead continuing to pace and pull on his hair. She gathers what's left of her courage and gets up to stand in front of him. He stops, mostly, she suspects, so he won't run her over, and stares at her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She prays he didn't mean to, but he yells it in her face, and this time she can't hide the barely audible squeak she lets out and the cringe her traitorous body does. He softens immediately (she swears, he knows everything about her, even when she doesn't say), and repeats in a quieter, calmer tone,

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She takes a deep breath and says, "At first it was because I didn't want to ruin your birthday, and don't look at me like that because I know you, and I know it would've, and then…I don't know."

She shrugs, and does her best not to curl into herself.

Next thing she knows, Jesse has his arms wrapped tight around her, and her arms around his neck and her toes aren't touching the ground. His face is in her hair, and he whispers into it,

"Next time, just tell me, alright?"

She nods into his shoulder, and silently hopes there isn't a next time.

He grips her tighter suddenly and says, voice still muffled by her curls,

"Don't freak out, alright? And don't feel like you have to say anything back."

She goes rigid, but relaxes again a second later when he rubs his hand down her back.

"Okay."

"I love you."

"Okay."

A week later, Jesse has talked to the Trebles—who he and Benji have been living with in the Treble house since a few weeks after winter break—and got Dave kicked out of the Trebles, and he's already been replaced by Jake's roommate Brad.

Unfortunately for everyone but Dave, the manager of the station—who, Beca swears, never actually leaves his desk—won't let them fire Dave, but it's better than nothing, Jesse says, that at least he's less in their lives than before. Beca just hopes he's right.

_**God, I hope this is in character. It's surprisingly difficult to write Beca being vulnerable. Ugh ugh ugh. Eh. Here's hoping.**_

**Songs Used/Mentioned.  
**_**Fire Starter-Demi Lovato  
Without You-David Geutta feat. Usher  
Don't You-Simple Minds  
Bright Lights Bigger City-Cee lo Green  
No Diggity-Blackstreet  
Feels like the First Time-Foreigner  
Kiss Me-Ed Sheeran  
Blame it on Me-Parachute  
Cups-Lulu and the Lampshades  
Since U Been Gone-Kelly Clarkson  
Moves like Jagger-Maroon 5  
Never Been Hurt-Demi Lovato  
Somewhere Only We Know-Keane  
The Only Exception-Paramore  
Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme song  
Doctor Who theme song  
Somewhere Over the Rainbow-Judy Garland**_

_**And disclaimer, since there've been so many songs lately: I own neither Pitch Perfect nor the characters, nor any of the songs they've sung/ Beca's mixed. This goes for the songs and characters in all chapters.**_


	14. Fight and Make up

He doesn't think he's ever seen her this mad before; she thinks the same.

They fight for so long, Jesse forgets at one point what they're fighting about. When he voices this, of course, Beca screams at him,

"We're fighting because you don't think I can take care of myself, you dumbass!"

And damn, because as much as she hates yelling, she can do it like the best of them (she learned from them, she supposes).

And yeah, this whole fight started because Jesse suggested she switch her shifts around at the radio station so she doesn't have to work with Dave so much.

"I can handle it, dude," she says, not looking away from her computer, where a possible mix for a performance for next year is being made.

"Beca, this is serious," Jesse replies, grabbing her arm when she goes to reach for the mouse, and he spins her chair around, using it as leverage. He ignores her raised eyebrows and continues,

"He could hurt you, Bec."

She wrenches her arm away from him, and snarls,

"Yeah, so could you. So could any goddamn guy on this campus. Or on this _planet,_ Jesse. That doesn't mean I'm going to mess up a schedule I'm totally good with."

"But Bec-"

It spans out of control from there and by the end, one of his oh so precious DVDs that he keeps at her dorm is full-on crushed underneath her booted foot.

"You just don't like me caring about you!" He shouts at her.

In response, it's like her whole body shuts down, and her voice is dark when she says,

"Get the fuck out of my dorm room."

He goes without complaint, and he slams the door behind him.

She throws herself on the bed, and tries not to be one of those teenage girls who can't function without their boyfriends.

They don't talk for three days, and, try as she might, she _is _one of those teenage girls, or at least on some level.

Its Bellas practice, and they're touching up their semi-finals set list; Beca, who isn't even really singing about love, is either flat or sharp at all times, unable to take her mind off of Jesse.

"You sound like an angry mating dingo," Amy points out when Beca finally admits she's off par.

"What does that even sound like?" Stacie mutters before chugging half a water bottle.

"Seriously, Beca, what's up?" Cynthia Rose asks, and Beca's thankful for someone who's at least semi-sane around here.

She sighs, and doesn't even try to resist when she says tiredly, "Jesse and I are fighting."

The girls make various noises of sympathy, and Jessica comments,

"Is that why he's so grouchy lately? All he's been doing is watching movies on his laptop in his room. That's what Benji says, at least."

Despite her efforts, Beca smiles slightly at the mention of Jesse's dorky habits. "That sounds like him."

"What are you guys fighting about?" Ashley asks, and so Beca explains the situation to them. When she's done, the Bellas all have matching looks of surprise on their faces, and they're all staring at her. Without blinking.

"Okay, can somebody say something, please?"

"Change your schedule," Jane says, and Beca gapes at her, and then at the rest of them.

"Seriously?"

They nod at their leader, and Denise says, "Yes, seriously. He's scared for you, and yeah, okay, protective, but since when is that bad? Compromise with him. Switch some of your shifts, and try to work with Jesse more often."

Beca slumps against the piano and blows hair out of her face. "That's actually some really good advice."

"And then climb that Treble like a tree," Amy adds helpfully, and Beca can't help laughing.

"That's also good advice. Thank you guys. All of you. See you tomorrow!"

She grabs her bag and runs out of the room before they can say anything else, and she ignores Amy and Stacie's unnecessarily sexual comments.

Somehow, she knows his class and Treble schedule, so she knows he's free right now, and if Benji is at all right, he's in the Treble house, watching some stupid rom-com.

Before she goes over there, though, she goes off of campus to buy another copy of the DVD she broke three days ago (but seriously, she doesn't think Jesse needs a copy of Mean Girls, anyway).

Once the stupid movie is in her bag, she sets a determined course for the Treble house that's on the edge on campus. It takes her almost thirty minutes to get there, and it's dark by the time she does, but she knows somewhere it's worth it.

She knocks, and yes, Benji was right, but he wasn't all right, because Jesse's the one to open the door. He says,

"Beca, what-"

And that's all he gets out before she jumps him. Not that he's complaining, of course.

She kicks the door closed easily, and drops her bag in the entryway, all with her lips attached to his. His hands are at her waist, as equally supporting her as the knees she has locked just above his hips; if she's hurting him, he gives no sign.

He walks her to his room, and somehow doesn't stumble once, even when she releases his mouth to suck on his jawline, right in that place she knows he loves. He groans, but doesn't stop until they reach his bedroom. He practically throws her on the bed, and a second later he's on top of her, and they're kissing again.

"I'm sorry," she gasps out when he takes off her shirt and she starts fumbling with the hem of his. "I'll change shifts, or change some, or-holy shit…"

She told herself she'd talk to Jesse, and tell him what the Bellas suggested, and work out their problems, but _Jesus Christ, _Jesse could be a fucking champion when he wanted to be, and she fell asleep before they could actually do any talking.

Although, she supposes later, who needs talking when you can work out your problems in a way that's _so much fucking better? _

She wakes up with a warm weight across her chest, and shit, she forgot how much she missed sleeping with Jesse, in the most innocent use of the word.

Beca carefully lifts Jesse's arm off of her, and slips out of bed with the grace of a cat. All she can find on the floor is her underwear—both her bra and panties, so that's something, at least—and his shirt, which she figures is a good enough outfit for going in search of food at—she checks the clock—8a.m. Gross. She puts her hair up into a ponytail with a band she has on her wrist, because she knows it's a mess of tangles right now.

She opens the door as quietly as she can, and then closes it behind her, still careful not to wake Jesse. She wanders down the hallway, trying to find the kitchen. She finds it at the end of the hallway, with Benji sitting at the breakfast bar—so not fair, by the way, mostly because it's so freaking massive—eating cereal, and Harry rifling through the cupboard above the sink for a box of granola bars. Derek and Bush are both leaning against the counter, arguing about food, Beca assumes.

"Does anyone in this house actually know how to cook?" She says aloud to make her presence known. All eyes whip towards her, widened to almost comical proportions. Benji's the first to speak.

"Does this mean Jesse's actually going to come out of his room?"

Beca shrugs, and comes out of the hallway further to sit next to him for a few seconds.

"Probably."

"Good," Harry says around his granola bar. "Next time, don't fight so close to a competition we _really need to rehearse for."_

Beca holds her hands up in the air, palms out in a sign of surrender. "Believe me, you guys weren't the only ones suffering. Me messing up with the Bellas is the reason I came over in the first place. They made me," she confesses, then changes the subject quickly as Brendan wanders in, rubbing his eyes. "Seriously, do any of you actually know how to cook?"

Which is how Beca ends up making French toast and bacon for all of the Trebles, minus Austin, who has a class at 8:45.

Jesse wanders in halfway through, and is confused as hell. Although, he has to admit, Beca wearing nothing but one of his shirts, and cooking while looking utterly content has got to be one of his all-time favourite sights.

"What's going on?" He asks, wandering into the kitchen to stand next to her. Beca only spares a second to smile at him before turning back to the stove. In way of answer to his question, she gestures around the room with the spatula in her hand and says,

"Apparently, being a Treble means you can't cook." She gives him a sly grin. "You certainly can't."

He shrugs, and doesn't even try to deny it. A minute later, Beca sends Jesse into the fridge for syrup, butter and juice, makes Brendan put on some actual decent coffee, and then sends Benji rifling through cupboards and drawers for cutlery, plates, and cups.

"Jeez, Beca," Jake comments—he doesn't live there, being a freshman, but does visit frequently, along with Andy, who is beside him—, "I thought you just had Jesse whipped, not the whole team."

Beca smiles coyly at him. "Give it time, Jake, I'll have you and Andy too." She winks for good measure, and Jesse laughs when Jake's eyes widen.

There is actually a dining room table in the house, connected to the kitchen, but the breakfast bar, which takes up approximately half the counter space in the kitchen, is large enough for all of them to eat at, so they do.

"This is really good, Beca," Derek says honestly, and it's the first words anyone has said since Beca served them all.

"Well, after my parent's divorced, my house kinda became fend for yourself, so I learned how to cook. Mostly basic stuff, but some really cool dishes too."

They nod in return, and Jesse kisses her on the cheek with maple syrup all over his mouth, and she, in return, does her best to push him off his stool, all to the Trebles' amusement.

Afterwards, Beca sets Brendan and Andy to doing the dishes, something they only complain about a little, surprisingly, and escapes to Jesse's bedroom to go get dressed.

She ends up wearing one of Jesse's—clean—shirts, and her own pair of slightly rumpled workout pants from Bellas rehearsal yesterday. It's where she has to leave to go to now, and she mentally cringes when she thinks of what they're going to say when she shows up in one of Jesse's shirts, but she doesn't have the time to stop by her dorm; she's already running late as it is.

They kiss goodbye, and before she goes she whispers, "I was serious. I'll change some shifts at the station, work less with Dave and more with you. Deal?"

He smiles. "Deal. And I'm sorry too, by the way."

She nods, and then she's out the door with Jesse staring after her.

"Whipped," Jake sings from the kitchen, and Brendan throws a wet spoon at him in loyalty to his leader, even though he's laughing.

The Trebles start their own practice for semi-finals an hour later, and both groups are amazed by the huge difference of their respected leaders.

_**Semi-Finals up next!**_

_**Also, speaking of musical chapters…any suggestions for Treble and Bella songs for Finals?**_

_**(And, for those of you who read my other multichapter **__**Unexpectedly Expecting**__**, I'm still working on it. Promise. No more disappearing acts from me).**_


End file.
